Happy Birthday Jesus!

Christmas is more than a holiday. It’s a holy day and it is Jesus’s birthday, not ours. 

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Good afternoon and welcome to our noonday service today. We're so glad that you've joined us. Today is the last week prior to Christmas 2024. Next Wednesday will be Christmas Day, and after that, the following Wednesday will be January 1st, 2025. So we just have a lot to celebrate and a lot to be thankful for. Let us begin today with prayer. Dear Lord, we thank you for another opportunity to come together to worship you. We thank you, Lord, for the technology that allows us to gather and fellowship with one another despite the distance between all of us. We thank you for the blessings of this season and for all that you allow us to enjoy. We just thank you, Lord, and praise you. We ask that you be with those that are grieving today, Lord. We pray for the family of Aunt Catherine Latney and of Minister Ada Joseph. Lord, we pray for them that you would help them during this time of bereavement. And we ask for the healing and wellness of Coach Sharnesha Smith, Lord, if you will take care of her, heal her body, and restore her back to health, good health, Lord. And there's so many others that whose names we don't know to call, but you know who they are, Lord, and we pray for them right now. We pray for each person that's on the call today, each family that's represented. We ask, Lord, that you would help us to be mindful of the things that you would have us to notice and to be attentive to, to forget about ourselves, to concentrate on you, to do what's pleasing in your sight. And we ask, Lord, that you would come into this place right now to speak through me, your instrument. Lord, teach your people, inspire them, encourage them. And whatever it is that you would have me to say, speak through me. These things we ask and pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen on today, everybody. I'm so glad that you are with us because after today we're going to be taking a break from uh from the noonday service. Like I said, next Wednesday is Christmas. Then the following is Christmas, is uh following Christmas, the next week will be New Year's Day. And so we're going to take the month of January off and we will return the second Wednesday of February, which will be February 12th. So if you'll let everyone know that after today, the noonday service will resume on February 12th. So Christmas is Christ's birthday. And with that in mind, our scripture lesson today comes from Micah in the Old Testament, Micah chapter six, verse eight, Micah six and eight. And I'm going to be reading it from the New Living Translation. And this is what it says, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. And I'm going to read that again from the easy English version of the Bible. It says, But God has told us what is good. This is what the Lord wants from us. You must be fair to other people, God says. You must want to be kind, and you must be careful to do what I show you. So our subject today for noonday is happy birthday Jesus. Happy birthday Jesus. Now at on a person's birthday, it's customary that we shower them with gifts. So since Christmas is Christ's birthday, I went on a quest to find out just what Jesus would want for his birthday. And found that Micah six and eight tells us quite plainly what the God of the universe would like from mankind, his creation. And it's just three things. But you know, we act like Christmas is our birthday, it's not. And so let's pay attention this year. And I believe that if we can do these three things, at least try to do them to the best of our ability from now on and through from the very beginning of the year, God will be pleased with us. There's nothing like giving someone a present that they desire. So let's talk about what God desires of us. First, He wants us to do what is right. That means to be fair to other people, to show just behavior to others. So what does that look like in our daily lives? It looks like respect and concern for other people, not just about ourselves. Simply said, it means speak to people, be pleasant, help out when you can, open doors, carry packages, share your resources, offer your services, give of your time, talents, and money. Pray for others. And if you think about it, I'm sure you can come up with at least three things you can do immediately upon the close of this sermon that fit into this category. Remember, these are presents we give in celebration of God in our lives. And then the second thing that Micah six and eight tells us is that God requires for us to love mercy. That means we are to be kind to others and show them compassion and understanding. God gives us both grace and mercy. Grace is receiving a blessing or a good thing we don't deserve. And mercy is not getting the punishment we do deserve. We tend to be harder on other people than we are on ourselves, and so I believe that's why the Bible particularly spells out mercy here, to say to us to give other people some empathy, to show them some compassion, and then not always judge each other so harshly. Jesus was really good about just showing mercy to people who really didn't deserve it, who deserved a harsher punishment. He's our example. And then finally, Michael tells us not to take ourselves too seriously, but to take God seriously, to walk with God in humble submission and reverence. Forget ourselves and concentrate on Him and worship Him, as the song says, as we come into His house and gather in His name to worship Him. And let's say this whole earth is God's house. So let's concentrate on Him. Christmas is not just a holiday, it is a holy day. It is the day we set aside to celebrate the greatest event of all times, the coming of our Messiah, our God with us, who became flesh and blood and dwelt among us. That's it. That's what God wants of us this year. That's what He requires. He wants us to love Him and to love each other. He wants us to do right, love mercy, and be obedient to Him. That's how to have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. But before I close today, I want to remind you that there's a biblical story that has all of these elements that we talked about today. All of the things that please God, doing right by others, showing them mercy, forgetting about ourselves, and concentrating on God. And these things are found in the Old Testament Book of Ruth. And after the sermon today, I would say go to that book. It's a very short book, only four chapters, and read the book of Ruth. And read it in the mindset of Micah six and eight, that those in that story did the things that God requires. You see, the story starts out with Naomi and her husband Eliminate, excuse me. They were citizens of Bethlehem during the days of the judges. And during that time a famine came about. So they left and went to the land of Moab, Elimelech and his wife Naomi and their two sons. And after they got there, Naomi's husband died and left her with just the two sons. And so they took wives of women of Moab. One of the wives was named Orprah and the other one Ruth. And they dwelt there, the Bible says, about ten years. And then both of them, both of Naomi's sons, Malin and Chilean, also died. And so it was just Naomi and her two daughters-in-laws. And she decided that she would go back to Bethlehem, go back to her home in the land of Judah. And she told those girls, she says, now I'm gonna go back to my homeland, but you stay here because I'm an old woman, and I there's no opportunity for me to remarry or get a husband. And so you should stay here and get husbands for yourselves and live here. And they at first they didn't want to go. And then one of them, Orprah, decided that she would go back. She would stay in Moab. But Naomi Naomi wasn't gonna leave, excuse me, but Ruth wasn't gonna leave her mother-in-law Naomi. She says in the Bible, entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. The Lord do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts you and me. Now when we think about that and we think about her loyalty, Ruth's loyalty to her aged mother in law Naomi, doesn't that sound like Micah six and eight? Do right by others. Do right by others. And then as the story goes on, when they got back to Bethlehem, they were two widowed women who had nothing. And Ruth met Boaz, who was a businessman in the area, who had property and land, and she was able to glean and gather after the reapers some food for her and her mother in law when she went into the fields. And Boaz treated her well. In fact she said to him in chapter two, she says, Why have I found favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me since I am a foreigner? And Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully reported to me all that you have done for your mother in law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and have come to a people whom you do not know you did not know before. Again, here we go, talking about Micah six and eight. Ruth was from the land of Moab, which was those were enemies of the Israelites, enemies of the land of Judah. She herself says that she was a foreigner. But here is Boaz showing her mercy, showing her mercy. And as the story goes on, we see that Boaz actually is going to be her kinsman redeemer. In fact, he's the next to the closest of kin to her. And when her close relative did not want to take on Ruth, in that culture, the women had to have a man in their lives in order for them basically to survive, or they were they were poverty stricken. And so the man that the close male relative that would have taken her own had himself a wife and children and did not want to take on the responsibility. And so he allowed Boaz to take on Ruth. And Boaz married Ruth. And they had a child. But the third verse, the third part of Micah six and eight says, forget about ourselves and concentrate on God. And that's what Boaz did. He forgot about himself and the responsibility that it would be for him to take on Ruth. Because he would take on Ruth and Naomi and be responsible for them. But that was the right thing for him to do. And it was what was required in that day. And he did just that. So as we look at this story of Ruth, we see the characters doing all the things that we talked about in Micah six and eight. Doing right by others, showing them mercy, forgetting about ourselves, and concentrating on God. And the funny thing about it is that this story brings us right down to the foot of the cross and the birth of Christ. Because this is what it says. So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. And when he went into her the Lord gave her conception, and she bore a son. Then the women said to Naomi, Blessed be the Lord who has not left you this day without a close relative, and may his name be famous in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age, for your daughter in law who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons has borne him. Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and became a nurse to him. Also the neighbor women gave him a name saying there is a son born to Naomi, and they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. And we know that through the lineage of David we have our Savior, Jesus the Christ. Look at God. That's it. That's what God wants of us this year, this day, every day, as we seek to please Him. Burnt offerings does He not desire, but are broken. Contrite heart, heart, a spirit postured towards Him. God bless you. Let us pray. Lord, we thank you for this word on today that reminds us that our God doesn't require a lot from us. But if we will try our best to do the things that He's asked of us, that we will be blessed. Not only us, but our descendants. We thank you, Lord, for this story that points us right here to the Christmas story, to the birth of Christ. Help us to remember, Lord, that Christmas is a holy day. It's not just a holiday. Help us to be reminded that we worship you and to be thankful for all that you've done for us. For the greatest event ever, that you became a man, Emmanuel, God with us. We thank you. We praise you. Be with us, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. I thank you all for joining us today. This being the last noonday service of the year. And we hope that it's inspired you. That this Christmas you think about God and what He would have us to give Him for His birthday. Because Christmas is not our birthday, it's God's. Thank you so much for all of your support over the past year. And I will be thinking of you and praying for you. Remember, we will not hold another noonday service. If the Lord says the same, we will resume February 12th, 2025. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year to each one of you. Now unto him who's able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God, our Savior, be glory, majesty, dominion, and power both now and forevermore. Let us all say, Amen. Go and be great for God.